Establishing China’s Green Financial System: Progress Report

Establishing China’s Green Financial System: Progress Report

The report finds that China – which put green finance on the G20 agenda during its 2016 presidency – is following through on its political commitment to boost the financing required to do this. The report looks particularly at progress since the State Council in August 2016 approved a set of recommendations for action on greening China’s financial system.

The report identifies many specific advances, including:

China has become a new growth driver in the global green bonds market. In the first half of 2017, China issued 36 green bonds worth RMB77.67 billion (US$11.7 billion). Of these bonds, the number and size of bonds grew 278 per cent and 28 per cent respectively compared with 2016.

Many provinces and cities have established regional green development funds. By the end of 2016, 265 green funds were registered with the Asset Management Association of China, of which 215 were green industry funds. Some 121 of these were established in 2016.

By the end of June 2017, 7,826 green and low-carbon projects, with a total investment of RMB6.4 trillion (US$0.96 trillion), were included in the national public-private partnerships projects catalogue, accounting for 57.7 per cent of the projects and 39.3 per cent of the investments in that catalogue.

China established five distinct green finance pilot zones to explore different development models for the local green financial system against different backgrounds.

The Chinese government and the business community have started to attach great importance to developing a green industry chain for outbound investment. With the Guidelines on Promoting Green Belt and Road, the APEC Green Supply Chain Network, and the Initiative on Environmental Risk Management for China’s Outbound Investment, China is going global in its green investment practices.